In recent years, actual and prospective customers have increasingly employed data and/or communications networks to purchase products/services, as well as to obtain information about and/or support for such products/services. In an effort to assure prompt and convenient customer service, many product/service providers have incorporated automated, network-based customer care systems into their product/service organizations. Such customer care systems typically provide customers with a number of ways to obtain information about and/or support for desired products/services, such as via landline telephones, mobile telephones, mobile devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) or smartphones, and/or tablet, laptop, or desktop computers.
In one typical mode of operation, an actual or prospective customer may place a telephone call over the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a mobile communications network and be connected to a customer care system, which may include an interactive voice response (IVR) system. Once the telephone call is connected to the customer care system, the IVR system may automatically provide a main menu of selection options to the customer via a series of prerecorded messages, and direct the customer to make a selection from the main menu either verbally or by pushbutton input. For example, such main menu selection options may correspond to account payments, technical support, sales, and/or any other suitable customer service. Upon receipt of the customer's main menu selection, the IVR system may automatically provide one or more additional menus of selection options to the customer, direct the customer to provide additional information regarding his or her inquiry, and/or connect the customer directly to an appropriate customer care agent. By incorporating automated, network-based customer care systems into their organizations, product/service providers can not only provide customers with more prompt and convenient service, but can also avoid having to rely upon their customer care staff to handle customer inquiries that may often be more efficiently handled in an automated fashion.
However, conventional customer care systems have shortcomings. For example, while a customer interacts with an IVR system of a conventional customer care system during an initial telephone call, the telephone call may inadvertently become disconnected from the customer care system, the customer may decide to terminate the telephone call prematurely, or the customer's inquiry may not be resolved completely to his or her satisfaction. At a later date and/or time, the customer may decide to place at least one additional telephone call to the customer care system for either the same reason as the previous call or a different reason. In each case, upon connection to the customer care system, the IVR system may automatically provide the same main menu selection options to the customer, and direct the customer to select an option again from the main menu, thereby forcing the customer to repeat many of the same selections and/or other actions that he or she may have been required to perform during the initial telephone call. Such shortcomings of conventional customer care systems can lead to frustration on the part of some customers, as well as the product/service providers who seek to retain those customers, and can hamper the widespread acceptance of automated service technologies.
It would therefore be desirable to have systems and methods of handling customer contacts received at customer care systems that avoid at least some of the shortcomings of conventional customer care systems discussed above.